Turn Right
by Renart
Summary: Death is only the beginning, and now life of Rose and her Doctor in Pete world is disturbed by sudden appearance of more alive, than dead Ianto Jones. Now, all they've got to do is to send him back, right? Ha! COE fix-it.
1. Prologue: decedere

Disclaimer: I'm not RTD, so I wouldn't say no to Blue Police Box.

SPOILERS: Doomsday, Jorney's End, COE-4, NewWho and Torchwood in general. Later on 11 Doctor, but as this fic will mostly take place in Pete world, it won't be much of influence on a main plot-line.

Rating: if you are old enough to watch Torchwood, then you are safe to read it too.

Characters: **Ianto Jones**, **the Doctor** 10 ½, **Rose Tyler** and others.

Summary: Death is only the beginning, and now life of Rose and Handy in Pete world disturbed by a sudden appearance of one very much alive Ianto Jones. Now, all they've got to do is to sent him back, right? Ha! COE fix-it.

WARNING: I got an idea getting drunk on strawberry wine and watching Ruby in the smoke (BBC film with Billy Piper and Matt Smith, we-eee! Loved the voice) and Harper's Island (bloody good American TV show about crazy maniacs. OMG! They killed off Kel and Chloe… COE-4 all over again).

Warning 2: I'm aware that Torchwood technically is not just TV-show, but also books, comics etc… Never read any of it. So I'm giving some background details that most likely would contradict that part of the canon. I'm sorry. But Wiki doesn't cut it. This fic purely based on 3 seasons of TV-show. Some goes for Doctor Who. If I got something wrong from series, than correct me please. Cheers, on with the story….

Un-beted.

**Prologue****:** **decedere**

It a truth universally valid and ignored that living on the top of Rift in Time and Space makes existence a constant tread of mysteries, lies, miracles, unspeakable horrors and inevitably leads to early, tragic and bitter end. If you are also happened to be Torchwood Cardiff, you are supposed to know it was _bloody_ coming, just like Ianto Jones did. Not specifics of course, he was not a prophet of any kind even in the loosest term, still he knew perfectly well what he had been signing for. A reason for such a risk at first was a sense of duty mixed with pang of loosing a woman he sincerely loved and wanted to spend the life with. Then it was guilt of a man who survived far all that he was worth, when better people died. Then it became redemption that in very short time was outshined by new love and newfound devotion and poignant inability to make life outside little kingdom buried under Roald Dahl Place. Torchwood in all it's hidden glory and daily trash became the worst kind of drag for him, spoiling the normal life that the rest of human race lived, obvious and petty.

He became a moth flying into hot fire and was quite happy with that morbid employment contract.

That moment, the horrible moment of his life, when everything he ever was will blink out of the face of the universe bothered him in a very detached, disjointed and even theoretical kind of way. He knew it was coming sooner then later and that nothing he would ever be able to do could possible help him to avoid that blind date. In truth Ianto preferred not to think about death and unhappiness as much as humanly possibly, with follow colleagues turning into zombies and part-time boss/ part-time boyfriend flirting with _it_ on regular basis. Ianto dived into present moment and in rare moment of self-hatred or weakness only allowed himself to comprehend what was coming in chary terms of grim retirement statistics.

The reality as usual chose to contradict his expectation. Humans as a rule rarely right about that sort of things. So it happened in an explosion that blew up one Captain Jack Harkness, Rift manipulator and the most extensive collection of alien warhead in Britain to bloody pieces right on the top of Rift in Time and Space. Ianto was so grateful it didn't take with it Earth or at least South Wales along for a ride, that he didn't pause to comprehend the fact that against all odds he was still alive. Maybe if he would, that history would have taken another path. But the world was pretty much ending. There was no time. And Ianto Jones was a man on mission.

The reality was nevertheless stubborn bitch and for Ianto Jones, breathing, kicking, fighting and frightened Ianto Jones, it meant that he was already dead. Not waiting to die, not living his final days, not giving the last rueful glance on the life stopped halfway. No. Ianto Jones was dead. He had died in explosion that took out Torchwood Cardiff base. Or to be more accurate he was dying in the eyes of the universe or as good as doing something pretty similar. The difference was so subtle, so extrinsic, so radical and so great, that it could hardly do anything – to be fair - but be neglected. Because the thing about blasting to hell fixed point in Time and Space is - never ever bloody do it. Brings about all type of troubles, not the least of which is incidentally blew open holes in the fabric of reality itself. For Ianto Jones it meant that he started to sip into another universe, as it was described later by one particular troublesome alien with penchant for picking up human girls on twenty–twenty first century Earth. At first just a little bit, just a shadow, inconsistent form full of nothing but echoes of man. Soon each passing minute took and took and returned and took even more, till four days later nothing, not even a shadow or a breathless corpse was left behind on the fifth floor of Thames House, London, Sol 3, Milky Way Galaxy, the Universe. Just white plate with #14 and rumpled scarlet sheet.

And that is a true story of how Ianto Jones died.

_Next Chapter_ (1st in fact: A ghost appears in Canary Warf and soon becomes a man of flash and blood. Who is going to solve the mystery if not Rose Tyler and her Doctor?)

A/N: I'm not sure how many chapters you can expect to tell you the truth or whole matter of updates (hides from Avada Kedavras. Tsukuemis, Zats and sonic blasters), despite pretty clear ideas for next 10-15 chapters, so if anyone wants to borrow this idea, or any of my ideas for they own fic…. U are welcome. Really, just drop me a note, so I could enjoy it too. Also, if you got something serious against Yvonne H., that fic is not droids you are looking for, she would be having a big role in Ianto flash-backs and not in bad girl kind-a way.)

BTW! Ever read fic with that plot devise? PLZ tell me if someone did. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 1: pt1

A/N: Spoilers for DW 4.11 Turn Left.

**Chapter 1: not the universe you were dying in**

"Rose!"

She screwed up her eyes on the empty side of the bed. She wanted at least once to woken up before the Doctor. She could swear the man didn't sleep at all. Half-blood Time Lord insomniac! The clear winter sky winked at her from behind the window.

"Rose!"

"Running!"

Making her way into next room, embracing downy blanket, she walked right into her Doctor. Already in a suit and everything.

"What's up?"

"Torchwood!" he manically grinned tossing her in the air.

Smiling dizzily she told him to put her down.

"Isn't it always? Any details?" she asked picking up the blanket. "Aliens are invading Buckingham Palace? Tourist turned wrong on a way to Andromeda galaxy? Sentinel flora in Covent Garden? Dad find out about your schemes, Mister Smith?"

"Nope, nope, maybe and I really hope no."

They made they way into the kitchen, where Rose poured a cup of fresh hot tea and sipped it carefully. With Doctor she never knew what could find its way into they teapot beside tea leaves. Like few ounces of pepper or bloody oil. Surprisingly nothing seemed to be wrong this time.

"Good. So?"

Doctor who didn't stop circling around the kitchen on the first place, now just jumped with excitement.

"Apparition! Ghost! Phantom. Shadow. Whatever. Right here, right now!"

"Canary Warf ya mean?" she asked carefully putting the cup down.

"Yes-ss! Where else? Cape Verde Islands? I think, we have a date, Miss Tyler."

"Well as long as it's not in the morgue. Fifteen minuets, 'key? Or and you'd better do something about "miss" part soon."

Running to the bathroom she risked another brief glance at the Doctor, already busy plonking around with part of sub-etheric resonator. The liking it with tongue bit was little bit disturbing, but maybe it was just last night. She grinned happily and shut the door.

(1 week later)

"Seriously, any time now! Come on!"

The ghost now was pretty solid even if a little bit "bouncy", like jelly. Since yesterday morning it even registered as a proper life-sign: heartbeat, temperature and everything. Doctor claimed that it even breathed. The most disturbing part was that it twitched, like a dog in the sleep. Like poor old Rosy.

She snorted and chased away thought about her fluffy counterpart.

That… that was serious… even if watching bouncy greyish-brown thing materialise itself into they world proved to be tiresome and taxing.

To think that it was only two days till Christmas. But that was her, Rose Tyler, daughter of You-can-trust-me Tyler and youngest director of Torchwood branch. And really, she didn't have anything better to do: no alien invasion apart from grey blurb, no spooky incidents, no boyfriend to go home to, because said boyfriend popped over they flat only for odd piece of alien tech forgotten on the kitchen table and to check on they project.

Doctor announced it was coming from the Void a week ago. Time passed and they were frustrated to find next to nothing, only whatever this ghost was, he was alive and thankfully alone. Half the people she assigned to Doctor's lab for the project weren't even there yet.

"So how are the walls of reality this morning?"

Doctor scanned ghost with sonic screwdriver and leaned back on the old chair he got from somewhere three days ago paired up with standard Torchwood autopsy table moved under the ghost. All this made him look very bit of mad Victorian scientist and, Rose suspected, he loved every minute of it.

"Good, fine. No change there," he dismissed the subject. "Impatient little thing!"

"Then how it even does it? Need a doorway to enter the building, right?"

"What is the life without little bit of mystery?"

"You know something!"

"I suspect. Great detective me. Have I told you? Met Agatha Christy. Brilliant mind for…"

Doctor stopped mid-sentence.

"SHH!"

"What?" Rose mouthed silently.

"Il approche!"

And the bright flash of cold white light flooded the room. Rose was momentarily dazzled by the flash. Blinking it away, she saw ripples dancing all over now mercury-like ghost.

"It's coming. It's coming, Rose!"

"I hope you would be half that exited when I'll be giving birth to our first child."

That got Doctor's attention.

"Rose? Are you …?"

"Don't be stupid! What's it with you and thinking I'm pregnant, anyway?"

The amalgam started to break and soon very human like man was left behind. He was young and pale with bleeding gush across his cheek and wore a dark-grey lounge suit, so he seemed to loose his jacket somewhere along the way. Watching slowly heaving chest Rose was startled to find that she knew that snub-nosed boy.

"But it can't be!"

"Met him before?" the Doctor demanded swiftly.

"Yeah. When I was searching for you, another you I mean. I was in all sort of places, worlds, parallel worlds. And I met a man with this face. Ianto Jones. Very polite. Made me the best cup of coffee I have ever had. He died so."

"How?" demanded the Doctor playing with scanner.

"He burned in the sky."

"So definitely not him."

"Nope. No chance there. He was just human."

"So is our guest." The Doctor smiled wildly and shushed her away.

(next morning)

Rose set in the infirmary where yesterday she moved their passer-through. She and the Doctor were alone, not counting unconscious body on the bed. She lazily studied her fiancé: wild hairs and thin face with the beautiful pair of eyes in the universe. The nose, she definitely loved the nose. Soon familiar rambling soothed her in dream-like state, so she nearly missed when it started to became important.

"…100 percent human male in his mid twenties. Healthy if you don't count gastric ulcer and few recently broken ribs. Some very interesting extraterrestrial antibodies in the blood with slight temporal abnormality to the mix. Traces of residual Rift energy, judging by signature the one in Cardiff. Remember Margaret the Mayor?"

"Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Oh, yes!"

"But why he is still unconscious, Doctor. He is here here, right?"

"Nope, something is still lingering back where he come from. But any minute now, really."

"That's certainly explains why nurse couldn't get him out of this clothes."

Any minute turned out to be really just a few minutes. So when Rose decided it was time to pop into other Departments and was making her way to the door they guest waked up. The Doctor was at once at the bedside.

"Here we come," Rose said to herself, her breath hitched.

"Hello! And who might you be?"

With relief Rose stopped holding her breath, because really all that "You are beautiful! You!" and other remarks were starting to earn Doctor certain reputation. The man raised himself on an elbow and starred at them with bewilderment that quickly melted into recognition and relief.

"Doctor?" asked he with husky voice.

That, mused Rose, certainly explained what universe they guest came from. Not much for sealing itself off for all eternity.

"Yep. That's me. I'm the Doctor. And who are you?"

"Ianto Jones, Torchwood," and added quickly. "I'm with Jack."

"Fantastic! And what do you think you are doing, Mr Jones?"

Young man squirmed a little, brows knitted with unmistakable worry.

"Oh, you know the drill. Defending the Earth from the alien threats, preparing it for the future. It's say so in our chart."

"Actually, I mean, what did you do? Right before now?"

Rose stepped closer.

"Do you remember?"

"Oh! I… I died. I was dying. Clearly not the case."

"No dying for you, Mr Jones! First thing about dying you should be there for occasion. You weren't. Well, mostly weren't. From what I can tell. And believe me, I'm sort of an expert here."

"But I remember it. I felt it. I should be dead. Virus…"

"Completely healthy you. See?" Doctor waved with medical scanner near Ianto Jones face. "Fascinating. Us humans, stubborn stupid apes. Dying… quite respectable business it is. Everyone dies. Little bit mundane really. Ordinary. Non-exquisite. Decaying. Find myself all routine quite disturbing. Can't be helped so. But from time to time someone manages to cheat. Tell me, Mr Jones any of it sounds familiar: lack of concentration, loosing control of the body, muddled thoughts? I would say for three-four days given time deletion…?"

"Well, yes. But… Where is Jack?"

"Oh! No, no, no. You must be thinking I'm the Doctor?"

"Aren't you?"

"I am. But not the right one. Not that I'm wrong, see, just I'm really not. Not the Doctor."

Rose decided it was time to step forward.

"Hello. I'm Rose Tyler and," she stopped searching for words. "Should have written a speech. Damn, just look out of the window," she finished lamely.

The young man set up, straitened up a wrinkled waistcoat and stood up.

"Come on!" Rose cheered him up.

He approached the window in few careful steps.

"Didn't know they held a festival."

"They don't. It's another universe," explained gently Rose. "Not yours, not mine, not Doctor's, not my mums."

"You sort of bled through the walls enclosing universes. From one - all across the void - to another. Down bitten path." Explained the Doctor illustrating his point by use of strip of gauze, tea and report from R&D Department. But Jones wasn't even looking at him, enchanted by the view.

"Parallel universes. Right. And how did I end up here?"

"Well… I got this theory. Last few days done anything adventurous with that Rift of yours?"

Ianto Jones turned back, hunted look upon his face.

"We didn't, but MI5 did blow up our base."

"That just happened to be right on the top of it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Bingo!"

"But it was three days ago."

"Hence bled, not dropped."

"I was running around sieving into another bloody universe?"

"Brilliant, isn't it? Humanity… Everybody think that it's such a simple race. But they are wrong. Absolutely. Because you know why? We are brilliant. And resilient. Did you know? One hundred trillion years into the future. We are still there!"

Ianto Jones shook head with restraint.

"I… no…," he whispered and then said as in afterthought: "Jack thinks I am dead."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," the Doctor answered and walked out of the room. Perplexed, Rose followed him with her eyes.

"That's the Doctor for you. Spent eight days chasing after it, turn around and run away." She sighed and looked at the reason of all upheaval.

Jones stood stock-still close to the window, no doubt trying to make a sense of the London stretched out before him. With zeppelins. In the year 2012.

"I'll be damned."

"You hungry?" asked Rose.

"Yes. Yes, I am," answered he clearly surprised.

"Come on then."

The two-minute way to the mess hall he didn't say a word. Just glancing around. Only when they sat at the table near window with great view of the river Ianto broke the silence.

"That's Torchwood Tower, isn't it?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Nothing. Thought it looked familiar."

"Tell me about it!" Rose smiled encouragingly across the table. "Chips?"

Next bit: Rose tries to send Ianto home, but they got sidetracked. Oh! And there just might be alien invasion.

A/N: 1) I re-watched part of COE for the purpose of writing this fic and Ianto didn't wear a full suit while he was still alive in Thames House. Later so, when we see Jack and Gwen sitting near his corpse there is a jacket. Can anyone give me some smart fic-wise explanation beside plot-hole?


	3. Chapte 1: pt 2

Chapter 1, part 2

Ianto nervously sipped from a glass before him. The taste was strange, decided Ianto, but he liked it. Not that it was that long left for him to enjoy that Vitex stuff. Not that Ianto was going to complain. Return transdimensional ticket wasn't something he could afford by himself and if Ms Rose Tyler could, he was hardly going to risk his chanced of going back by asking for an excursion or whatever. Not that there was time or clearance to go anywhere beyond walls of Torchwood Tower. To tell the truth the city outside didn't interest him all that much. Not when he could still smell phantom burns and blood. Not when his own world could be ending that very moment.

He told himself to relax, not there was any real chance he could do it. Last days left him bundles of nerves all leading to one man, Jack. Almost giddy expectation was messing with Ianto's senses. Jack. To see him again, to touch him again. Tell him to damn forget ill-fated encounter in Thames House. To tell Jack, that it wasn't good-bye. That was all he could really think about. And myriad of questions driving him mad. What the man did? What about 456? And Earth? And Torchwood? And them? And Jack?

"You'll be back home by Christmas."

"It's September."

Rose Tyler blinked, which made her look like a young girl. Suddenly she reminded Ianto of Gwen with her confidence and enthusiasm and open smile. And conviction that everything is going to be alright in the end.

"Right. Differences. Seems like time's running here pretty fast."

"Yep. So I guess that trans-dimensional canon doesn't look very canon-like."

"Wait till you see Torchwood dimensional jumpers."

"I am watching the clock," smiled Ianto, puling from a waistcoat antic silver watch and swinging it in the air, the only true thing, beside himself, from life before 456.

"I bet you are," laughed Rose Tyler.

Ianto looked at the charming beautiful young woman. Without any good reason Ianto trusted her, despite knowing with every fibre of his body that it's going to get him hell lot of trouble.

But no change there, not after years with Captain Jack Harkness.

Alarms flared to life.

With purely concealed worry Ianto watched her putting on her handset and pretty face melting from disbelief to worry only to hide it all behind mask of competence.

"Look, Ianto. Our sensors picked up a fleet behind the Mars. Sorry. I really need…"

She didn't finish her sentence. The bright light girdled around them and Torchwood Tower was replaced by bright-light chamber.

Ianto measured three mantes-like creatures standing right before them. Yellow and far taller than any normal human. A uniform totally gave them away. And weapons. What looked like weapons, could as well be scanners, but somehow Ianto really doubt it.

"I think they are aliens," stated the obvious his companion in adversity.

"Usual day in the office then," he concluded.

Rose Tyler sent him a cheeky smile.

"Double hazard pay is the bonus so."

That was of course when eight feet tall mantes stunned them.

"_Where the hell is my daughter?!"__ demanded Peter Tyler from scared convened assembly of heads of various Torchwood departments, bursting into conference room._

"_Five minutes. I am out for __five minutes and she does what?!" cried the Doctor entering not a minute later._

_Tangled explanation __they were provided with was accompanied by scrap of pictures and satellite images as well as CCTV footage. Which all come down to there is someone creeping behind Mars. And obviously whoever they are they took Ms Tyler._

_Doctor __peered at picture of alien ship floating above conference table. Slick lines of helical-like ship's skin arching into semblance of doughnut seemed to get his complete attention. The rest of the room with poorly concealed hope watched him put on his rectangular horn-rimmed glasses and stare at it some more._

_And then t__he Doctor jumped up from his chair and look around the room._

"_Hiwah!" __he cried out enthusiastically. "We met hiwah! Six thousand years earlier! Fantastic! But why? They should not have left they own galaxy, all the more explore ours! But that's it! They home galaxy never got invaded by gahra, because in they were never created, because there will be no Galactic Council to blow up that chrono-hole…Because now that we met hiwah there will be no need to… It's quite exiting! Love this universe. So alike, so different. What?"_

_Peter Tyler coughed._

"_Doctor?"_

"_Ye-ees?"_

"_What does that mean?"_

_His practically son-in-low mischievously swayed on the tips of his feet and gave the big, threatening smile._

"_You like rabbits__, don't you?"_

"_I suppose." Peter nodded._

"_Tasty aren't they?"_

"_Where are you going with that, Doctor?"_

"_Hiwah… peaceful people. Quite intelligent too. __They are a lot like us. Very curious, very brave. Not humanoid them. You would call them insects. Only they are not. Not really. Vertebral kind of guys. Ingenious race. One of the best physics in universe they have. Only when back in my universe in 78 century humans discovered hiwah… Well… first contact… it didn't go all that well. Spectacularly bad would be more like it. Can you guess why?"_

"_No?"_

"_Rabbits."_

"_What?"_

"_They are carnivorous, just like human race. And it just so happened that they rabbits look like you. Chickens. Cows. Actually they call it rhen. Vous voyez?"_

"_Tasty!" cried indignantly Jake._

"_Oh, boy!"_

"_But we are not!"_

"_O__f course not. But how are you gonna explain it to them?"_

"_What a__bout clothes, buildings, all our technology?"_

"_Yes, doesn't it all speak for itself?"_

"_Oh, Peter. You built a great big spaceship and send it to explore great unknown. Enterprise! And than you find a planet. And__ there are seven billion rabbits. And some very very advanced technology. Partly my fault. Can't be helped now."_

"_Doctor!"_

"_Hiwah thinks they found robotic civilization."_

_Someone chuckled nervously._

"_They should have come eight years ago."_

"_So we just need to convince them, these hiaaa people, that we are not rabbits."_

"_Hi-wah, Jake."_

"_Don't care, Doc. I got my guns."_

"_Why made the game-boy here the head of security?" demanded Doctor.__ "No guns! What do you need them for? Start a war?"_

"_If I need to."_

"_Humans. What a brilliantly stupid race you are."_

The consciousness returned to Ianto step by step with familiar sting burning in the back of his head. Between earth bullets and weevil claws EM guns were rare and few in between, but headache was unmistakable. "Here we go again!" he thought dryly and suppressed a groan. As awareness was returning to him he felt warm body pressed to him from behind and rigid construction below on which both of them lied thoroughly tied. Faint smell of expensive perfume reached his nose, along with sterile musty odour of abandoned warehouse. Ianto risked opening his eyes, but reality did not changed too much. On the blink of his eyes he saw a blond lock.

Right. Parallel Earth. Parallel Torchwood. And mantes.

One problem at a time.

"Awake, are you?" asked in hushed whisper Rose Tyler.

"Ma'am?"

"If we survive this, and we are going to, you can call me Rose."

"Noted. I had to admit this is first."

"What?"

"Eight feet tall yellow space mantes with stun-gun."

"Yeah. So there were this sort of brownish and they were smaller."

"What happened?" asked politely Ianto.

"Civil war. We, me and the Doctor, stopped it. Aesop galaxy. Year 456 apple λ. They city, it was kind of like a mound and I had to tell that running for your life thorough that maze was quite a feet."

"What's that with saving the world and running anyway?"

"It's fun."

Ianto couldn't do anything, but agree. Despite the state of despair and settling fatigue that brought 456 case, despite Jack blowing up to pieces and – basically – end of the world… Despite all the shit and gore it had been fun. Because Torchwood was the best job one misfortunately could ever have.

"Ha! My kind of boy!"

Ianto managed to move a little bit.

"So the Doctor is Director of Torchwood London?"

"It certainly seems that way," murmured Rose and shook her head. "No. He is just sleeping with the boss."

"Oh. That's familiar," he said with not of respect. But then she tried to look back and Ianto got a mouthful of hair that he tried to spit out as silently as he could.

"You and Jack? Seriously?"

"Who could resist a come-on like that?"

"But… it's Jack, you know? Must have installed peculiar policy about office romance."

"Not much of a romance really. More like…" the explanation died on his lips when the first knot gave away.

"Hey! What ... what are you doing? Ianto?"

"Just a moment, ma'am."

"Rose," she corrected.

Ianto twitched the right way and – finally – the whole thing started to shed away. In a minute they both stoop up messaging numb hands and in Ianto's case frantically looking around. Rose seemed to be much calmer. Ianto envied that self-control somewhat, but then he would like to see her after three worst days in her life topped by alien abduction in another bloody universe. She was practically home. He - not so much.

"At least I won't be running around on high heels," she said looking at her boots.

"What a relief," deadpanned Ianto, remembering Gwen who never got any trouble with that. "And what now?"

Rose Tyler gave him a cheeky smile.

"First rule: find where or when you are."

"Right. Sure. You think we were moved through time?"

Rose studied the doorframe.

"You can never be sure," she said poking in the controls. "Ask Jack some time how once we were in feudal Japan, blacked out and found ourselves two hundred thousand years into the future." The door slid sideways revealing generic hall behind it.

Ianto paused near doorstep making sure that no one or nothing was in sight. Not that it would help if they surveillance there, but one never could be too careful with such reckless lifestyle as they.

"Coming?"

"Er, yes."

"By the way, you didn't see recently two words BAD WOLF? Anywhere?"

Ianto thought about it.

"Nope. Is it important?"

They walked into a corridor.

"Not really. Just a thought. But that's good. Means we are not into too big trouble here. I wander why we haven't met anybody yet."

Id didn't last long as at the end of the corridor they found a pair of yellow mantes. But this time Ianto was prepared, and so was Rose Tyler. He moved stunned aliens in what looked life a cupboard and tried liberated gun on the piece of furniture.

"You found something?"

"Fantastic view. Just look at it!"

Ianto walked to illuminator and dared to look outside. They were in space. Honest to god space. For all Torchwood wanders back home he never was anywhere beside good old Earth. And the planet before them was certainly wasn't it, parallel universe or not. Sort of reddish and silent.

"Is it Mars?"

"Looks like it. Which means they did not move. So Mars geostationary orbit. Could be worth."

"We don't have a spaceship."

"But they got one. Think they will be willing to share?"

"Too messy."

"Maybe. Let me think. Luckily we are not so far away from Earth. It's not on the other side of the sun. Which means teleport should work. If only I can get a call!" she felt for something in the pocket of her trousers. "Damn, I left my phone on Earth."

Ianto stole another glance at the planet hanging outside.

"Not everyday you got to say that."

"No. Not everyday. But time was it could be the other end of the universe."

"Must have been fun." Ianto turned back. "We are on our own then."

"Scared?"

"Just a little bit. You?"

But Rose did not answer him to busy searching for something. Ianto silently wondered what a mess her must be for her not to be able to find anything inside them. But finally her efforts paid off and she pulled out something that was either a laser pointer or something much more in Jack style.

"What is that?"

"Sonic screwdriver. Very good at … a lot of things actually."

"I see. Not something one can by at Tesco?"

"Not particularly."

"Thought so."

Rose smiled again, that too cheeky grin that Ianto previously saw only on Jack face.

"Ma'am?"

"Well, Mister Jones, scared or not. We are saving the world today!"

_Next time: __alien invasion continues, Rose and Ianto are up there and Doctor is sulking…_

SO what do you think? Review if you like it. Review if you don't and tell me why. This bit was supposed to be twice as long, so I'll update on weekend. BTW. Should I move it into crossover section for DW/TW with Ianto and Rose or Doctor as characters?

A/N: on the topic of 11 Doctor. OMG, he acts like illicit child of Donna Noble and the Simm!Master. Not that I'm complaining. Poor Torchwood so, he in 20 odd minutes managed what they muddled through in five days. "Hello! I'm the Doctor. Basically… run!" I'm in love. So about his timing, is he getting senile or what? 12 years here, month there. Type 40 TARDIS sure.


	4. Chapter 1, pt 3

Update! Ta-dam! Thanks to people who reviewed my story so far: specialfrancine, deemama66, milady dragon and CSIGeekFan.

BTW, believe it or not I didn't even think about Countryside before I got first draft of this chapter.

**Chapter 1, part 3**

"_How do __we convince somebody in our intelligence when that someone thinks we are bunch of cockroaches?" asked one of the Departments head. _

"_Rabbit," c__orrected the Doctor. "You don't eat cockroaches. Well, not nowadays. Not in Britain. And the question should be how do you convince somebody that you are not in fact rabbit, if you look like it, smell like it and behave like it most of the time?"_

_Peter Tyler __coughed warningly._

"_Be it as it may, Doctor, question still stands.__ What are your suggestions, lady and gentlemen?"_

_The erupted in dozen__s of voices: arguing, demanding and speculating. The Doctor got closer to Peter Tyler._

"_Peter, listen carefully, whatever you do, just don't…Don't. Start. A. War."_

"_My daughter is up there."_

"_I promise you that I'll get Rose home."_

"_You always do."_

"_Yep, that's me. But seriously, no war."_

_Peter tiredly nodded. What a way to start a day. And that's just a day before Christmas. They all should be back at manor decorating the Christmas tree._

"_No war, people," he said and asked tiredly. "Was there any other abduction reported?" _

"_Not in Europe. We are still gathering data for the rest of the world, sir."_

_Doctor __jumped again and started measuring quite short distance between table and nearest window. _

"_But__ why Rose? Why take Rose?"_

"_She is director of key Torchwood branch."_

"_They believe we are animals!" corrected the Doctor with a maddening intonation of bored maniac. "They should have just grabbed a random pair… Oh!"_

"_What?__"_

_Doctor with guilty look collapsed into the nearest free chair._

"_She wasn't the only one taken. We all seemed to forget about my good old friend Jack's __young man that fell on our laps this morning. That's not good. As in "being abducted by the passing by aliens and experimented on" not good. But! That means we have time."_

"_We don't have time. Space cannibals kidnapped my daughter! How do you know she is still alive?"_

"_Oh, I would have felt it there." the Doctor dismissed the grim question tipping his temple. "And they are not cannibal, Pete. They respect intelligence. And Rose is smart girl. So I hope is young Mr Jones. A little bit unlikely that."_

"_Why?" dared to asked shushed Jake._

"_Torchwood Cardiff: good looks and blazing guns."_

"_Nothing wrong with that!" took offence Jake._

"_Yes. Yes. That's just no what we need right now."_

"_Ye, sure you __are our only walking wet dream."_

"_Out!__ Jake Simmons. Out! Don't return until you find some brain!"_

"_Good! Enjoy you meeting while I gather some brave boys__, because we gonna need them."_

_Peter waved a hand._

"_Jake. Doctor. Stop it. It's not a kindergarten."_

"_Sure feels like one."_

"_You are one to talk. How old are you. Two? Two and a half?"_

"_I'm sending both of you to Scotland__," he warned._

"_Shutting up, boss," muttered unhappily Jake. The Doctor just fidgeted uncomfortably and even that didn't last longer then five seconds._

"_So where was I? Or, that's right. Rose. She is up there and our best chance to convince hiwah how brilliant human race are." _

_Sometimes, just sometimes Rose __was too much of her own mother daughter. And that nagging six sense told Pete that today would be one of these days. And how slapping alien arthropod with spaceship will help her to convince them in general humanity intelligence? _

"_So it's up to __these two now. Up to Rose?" asked grudgingly Jake, not able contain himself any longer._

"_Yep, but don't worry, she will think of something. She is brilliant like that. Oh, and Pete, don't mention anything to Jackie, will you?"_

_Peter Tyler silently groaned._

"Don't recognize the design..." trailed off Ianto looking with suspicious at Rose. She shrugged helplessly.

"Never met these guys before in my life."

"But that are defiantly aliens," he said. "Which means it is either invasion or serious case of interplanetary miscommunication."

"They didn't kill us."

"Yes. Always a plus," said Ianto trying to sound cool, managing more of a _hell I should have died ten ways this week and I don't care if universe hates me_.

"Didn't even search us," she continued making way to the door. Making sure that no one was outside the stepped into another corridor not much different from the one they were before.

"Not that there were all that much to begin with," he noticed clenching liberated gun, too alien in his human hands. "Which way now?"

"I let you know, Mr. Jones, that this," Rose shook her screwdriver and continued: "saved the day more times than anybody bothered to count. I think – that way. Picking up some major energy readings."

"So if worse come to worse we could always blow up they reactor."

"Let's hope it wouldn't come to this."

Looking at her Ianto wandered if once upon a time Captain John Hart was right and they really needed a blond. Preferably not poodle-lover himself. Then again Hart and his manners would have come handy in the last few days.

Ten minutes later, two barely avoided alien contacts and seven picked up locks behind they stood in mostly bare room with built into the walls consoles and a thing in the centre that was either a chair that looked like plastic garden swimming pool or an object of really abstract alien art.

"A lot of thing you learn to do running around time and space with alien boyfriend," Rose Tyler said not without a proud. "Picking up the locks on random alien spaceship? Easy!"

"Some dates you must have got."

Ianto leaned on a wall and closed eyes for a second. Last days where row of running, planning, surviving and more running. And he was fucking tired. He just wanted to kiss Jack, go home and sleep for a week. And he wasn't even in the right universe for all that simple stuff.

Bloody Torchwood.

"Better then it sounds."

Yes, Ianto could certainly sigh under this. That was the problem, it was better than alternatives: living ordinary life, letting somebody else retcon you and deceive you and protect you. How he could let go of this? No Torchwood? No Jack? Ha, don't fool yourself Mr. Jones, Ianto Jones.

"I learned in Torchwood," he said opening his eyes.

"Picking locks? Was Jack good teacher? Because from what I remember he preferred to blast a lock to hell, preferably with a door."

"No." Ianto measured her with the glance. That wasn't like he will see her after today, if they live that is. She will not judge. "It wasn't Jack. It was lady Hartman."

"No way!"

Ianto examined machinery presented in the room.

"Seven years in time loop, I am lucky not to have crocheting for a hobby. Not that Yvonne knew how. Well, I don't think so. That's a scary though: lady Hartman and crochet hook."

"It would probably be alien anyway."

"True."

Powering some of the system Ianto desperately tried not to look like he didn't know what he was doing. He wasn't Tosh. He wasn't Jack for that matter. But he was Torchwood. And if Gwen few months ago managed to hack UNIT database from Rhys computer…

"Can you open that panel?" he asked lowering on his knees.

"Sure."

She encircled frame with screwdriver that looked like a sci-fi magic wand and it fell off. They looked inside into interlacement of machinery that didn't look like anything found on Earth.

Rose raised her eyebrows with a dubious expression.

"I usually leave this part to the Doctor."

Ianto nodded.

"I think..," he started uncertainty and liked his lips. Torchwood – beyond and outside and so all powerful. Then why even in parallel world he was crouching in stale suit on bloody spaceship on the back of beyond that belonged to aliens bent on doing who know what to Earth and no backup. But that was his job, now he just needed to remember that he bloody loved it. "Rose, I think, I recognize enough to build a transmitter to get in touch with Torchwood."

"What are you doing in Cardiff again?"

Ianto smiled. One million question. If only he knew the answer himself.

"Beside Jack?" he asked disconnecting power circuit.

**First Officer KrrrL liked animals: they did not talk or scheme or**** try to make his life difficult. He would never tell this to another living soul, but phii were his favourites: all scales and fur. Not very warrior-like. Rhens were another matter. Bigger, stronger, defiantly smarter they weren't made for petting or indoor keeping. Too savage, too big. Back home his parents got a farm. Just six thousand heads. Not very big, sure, but Krrrl treasured that quite place like nothing else, even more than Megapolis with its bright lights and bustling life. At night when both moons were rising above the jungle he used to tenderly listen to rhens' cries in the night. It gave him the sense of closer to all his ancestors. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds assembling into thousands planetary cycles ago, when they people only dreamt about stars breeding rhens was warrior thing to do. It was about power and strength.**

**How strange it was that here they are? Another galaxy and what did they find? Rhens. Some things were universal.**

**KrrrL considered for a moment if it was polite to borrow a pair of rhens like this? But native life didn't seem to have any purpose for them beyond pets and bio-department was ready to rebel as it is if not given some work to do. Cycles and cycles stretched for crew till they will attempt the first contact. How in universe dominating species could be essentially living, breathing machinery that seemed to encircle whole planet was beyond his imagination. And not only his. Shak from R&D told him that Admiral thought that fleet was noticed, but no sure news were published on the main server. So the wait might be not so long.**

**And now that wretched pair of rhens managed to escape? In a way, it was refreshing. So if anyone asked KrrL when he was enlisting to the most daring expedition of his generation, what he was expecting? Chasing after two domesticated rhens on the dawn of the first contact with alien civilization so wouldn't make it even into top-100.**

**Krrrl checked his stunner and give a sigh to Thiflr, his second in command. Secondary control centre where poor animals managed to crawl was right before them.**

"**Stun, don't kill."**

**Two boys from R&D that had tagged along with them whistled in agreement.**

"**Aye, Captain."**

**The scene that greeted then behind the doors wasn't what any of them could expect. One of the rhens, female would be educated guess KrrrL, was standing on the hind legs and pointing EM gun at them.**

**Did they train them? run a thought thorough KrrrL head with half-forgotten memory of some old crazy coot that schooled a rhen to bring him sticks and gather pih-pi fruits. And really dressed rhens? What for?**

"**What?!" shrilled Thiflr from his right.**

**And then his brain at least caught up with the whole picture because second rhen kneeled over trashed console was bloody…**

**Oh damn!**

… **rhen. Rhen! Built something. And Krrrl was ready to bet his third chela that that something was transmitter. He would certainly built one in fine fix like that.**

"**Hold fire!" he ordered.**

"**Sir?"**

"**Don't breathe! Don't do anything!" he cut off shortly lowering his gun. "We just fucked up our first contact with natives."**

_Next time_: Ianto _thinks_ he is finally going home, Doctor is sceptical and Rose has an excellent idea.

A/N: I needed that line about Y.H. and seven years in time loop 'cause later on Ianto will tell this story in more details (hint – that's how he joined Torchwood One). There will be one more bit from Chapter 1, then I'll post interlude and after that I'll start uploading chapter 2. I finally got this whole plot thingy sorted out, so what hopefully you will see is 13 + 1 chapters. There will be sort of four arks roughly 3-4 chapters long. Each chapter will be one separate adventure. Oh, and I'm really exited about chapter # 8 "That's good to be a king."

Also if you noticed Doctor got certain prejudice towards Ianto, the reason lies in TYTNW, which Doctor remembers and Ianto obviously doesn't. It will be explained and explored properly in #9 and #14.


	5. Chapter 1, pt 4

_A/n: final part of 1__st__ chapter. If you are wondering why I'm posting it like this and why the heck I won't call 2000 words a chapter. Well… think about chapters like episodes. Plus imagine how long it would take me to actually update otherwise. _

Oh and I was pointed out it wasn't exactly clear what Krrrl saw – all fixed now. I added few lines.

**Chapter 1, part 4**

On the course of last three hours Ianto started to miss hiwah and they spaceship. In Torchwood Cardiff he was the first one to insist on competent report, but really what was there to tell? Wake up with a headache, escaped, tried to contact Torchwood, out of the blue aliens decided to make friends? Thankfully the debriefing seemed to be over. And as much as Ianto's body disliked idea of staying up and awake any longer, he managed to pull off _I'm still here_ impression and helped himself to another cup of coffee. Shortly after he was joined by Rose Tyler her own tiredness poorly concealed behind touched up makeup. Working on automatic pilot he made her a cup of coffee too. She accepted it with worn-out smile.

"Thanks," she said after first sip. "You know, it's practically Christmas already. Mum is having a party tomorrow. Could be fun. Not running around alien spaceship fun."

Ianto thought about it, really thought. He new that he won't be able to do much back home in the state he was in, but _Jack and Gwen and children…_

"How about my lift home?"

"Yeah, got a feeling you will say this. Come on."

They walked out of the conference room and headed to the lift. Innards of Torchwood Tower and should-be long dead people passing by did not go through Ianto's weariness and dulled senses.

"So what did you make out of our universe?"

"Weird place."

"Why?"

"They apologized."

"Let you know that politeness is not exclusively human trait."

Lift arrived and they walked in.

"Correction. They tried to eat us and apologized."

"Yes, that cannibal thing is little bit disturbing." She confessed hand hovering over panel. "But everything happens for the first time."

Ianto decided not to go there and just nodded.

Ground floor.

Lift moved.

So dimensional can really didn't look canon-like, neither did dimensional jumper. But whatever. Ianto turned it around.

"That will take me home?"

"That's the theory. Yes. You wouldn't believe where I went with just this toy. But that's rather boring story. Complicated too. And don't criticize the design. They used to be bright yellow."

"Wouldn't dream to."

"Need a little bit of programming now, recharge and off you go!"

Few minutes later when the room was humming with all equipment working and Ianto straightened out his tie for the fourth time, the Doctor showed up chewing banana, first he looked at Rose then over at Ianto, with noticeably less enthusiasm.

"Didn't learn anything about pretty boys, did you?"

"And you are done jumping around our unexpected friends?"

"Pete wants to talk to you."

"Interstellar diplomacy. Yeah. I nearly finished there."

Doctor nodded and entered the room. His attention was caught by data displayed on the screens. He slouched near one of the computers, searching for something.

"Is everything alright?" asked Ianto, frowning.

"Oh, yes. Peachy. Don't like peaches myself. But bananas are good. Did you know? They did not have banana daiquiri in this universe till I came aboard. Crime if you ask me," rumbled Doctor rather absent-mindedly.

Rose shrugged.

"Don't mind him."

"How is Jack by the way?"

Ianto really didn't know what to answer on this question. Still _alive_, sounded too much like bad joke.

"All better after growing back together, sir," he said carefully.

"Good. Good. What?! You mean… Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Explains a lot actually. Someone really needs to tell dear Captain not to blow up on the top of space-time rift anymore."

"Wasn't his choice exactly."

"Right. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"Hardly expect you to be, sir, seeing as you live in another universe. Little bit of long way from home."

"I mean him, another me. If he could he would come."

"But he didn't," wanted to reply Ianto, but hold it to himself. Instead Ianto just nodded. It was awkward, thankfully he was saved by Rose.

"It's ready!" she declared. "Destination – parallel Earth. But before you go one last question, Ianto. Then… with ropes… how did you do this?"

"I had a lot of practice," Ianto offered an explanation.

Rose blinked and blushed slightly.

"Right."

"Surprisingly, you are wrong, Mrs Tyler."

Doctor muttered something in a language that Ianto didn't know.

"I'm seriously tempted to keep you for myself, Ianto Jones."

"Can I have it writing for Jack?"

"Nah! Do not want to make Captain Jack jealous, do we?"

"Maybe?"

"Right. And just in case," she trusted into his hands one really big gun. There seemed to be quite a few lying around in this room. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

Nothing happened.

_That was anticlimactic_, a thought flashed trough Ianto's mind, followed by complete emptiness. It was like great gaping abyss opened before him and was starring at him.

"Doctor?" he heard trough haze angry voice of Rose Tyler.

"The walls are sealed," came too smug, too competent reply.

"But he got there!"

_I did._

"That was impossible,"

"Than why didn't you tell me anything sooner?"

"Oh, there were always one in a million chance that it will work. Happens a lot around you, Rose Tyler."

_I'm not coming back._That wasn't right at all. He just couldn't stay, not when his whole life was on the other side.

"I need to go back!" he demanded, half-pleaded.

The Doctor measured him with strange almost sad glance.

"You can't."

No. No. No. No. The word could only end so much for one person. And he just couldn't leave through another personal apocalypse. It couldn't be happening again. He was just human. Just a boy from Welsh. What did he do to deserve this?

"Doctor will find a way. Right, Doctor?"

"That would be impossible."

"But?" pressed Rose.

With naked bleeding hope Ianto starred at the Doctor. Back in Torchwood London there rumours that man knew everything. Ianto never believed it. And Jack who could do anything seemed to deify the man. Ianto never wanted to believe it before. He wanted to start believe now.

"Say no to universe? Break few hundreds lows of nature? Do impossible?"

"Nothing new for you, Doctor."

"All because of some lost welsh-boy?"

"Jack's boyfriend."

"Calling debts, are we?"

"Call it what you want. So?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes. I can do it. I have to build few things from scratch, finish you-know-what, make adjustments. This and that and another few things too. Should work so, not sure it would be such I good idea, but that's what being human is about, right? This urge to solve the problem, universe be damned. I like it! Actually… I'm brilliant. Rose do you know how brilliant your genius your husband is?"

"Vaguely. You can run to your lab now, Doctor."

"Right. That's what I will do. Allons-y!"

He turned in the doorway.

"Fifteen minutes, Rose. Pete is waiting."

"I'll get you in hour and a half."

There were again alone in the room that five minute ago contained everything Into wanted from this universe. He sighed heavily.

"And here I started to hope it would as simple as pressing on big button."

"That would be too simple!" she said with false cheerfulness.

Ianto heavily set on the coach.

"You are in a good company so," consoled him Rose. "We are both dead, back home, you know."

"If there is such thing as home."

"Doctor will see to it. The one in your universe. He won't abandon Earth. Plus 2012. Perfectly good year. Saw it myself. Lot's of children."

For some reason Ianto couldn't voice out that by home he meant Torchwood and a very real possibility that on his return he will find Gwen and Rhys dead, Jack gone and the world just like it was last week: obvious and flippant.

"I am stuck, so what now?" he asked.

"Usual stuff. Find a job. A flat. Whatever," she suggested. "Change of scenery. So it's a little bit extreme."

"Is _a little bit_ a technical term here?" he deadpanned.

"M-mm.…" she pulled up a chair and sat down across from him. "Oh god! You will need a passport now. And Torchwood will have to hack all planetary databases. And if you already exist here…"

"What?"

"Parallel world. A lot is the same. Not everything so. I got a Maltese." The thought that somewhere out there was sound asleep carbon copy of him made Ianto queasy. It was wrong on some deep inexplicable level. "So another you, he could be dead now. Like my mum or Rickey," she continues obvious to his unease. Then something crossed her face, memory of sustained losses and past pain.

And then it dawned upon him. Ianto restrained himself from flinching or fainting or having panic attack. Fantastic, he though, just fantastic, surely they ought to notify about such thing in triplicate.

"Cybermen. They were from parallel world. It's this world, right?"

"Yeah," admitter Rose Tyler. "It was eight years ago. A madman chasing after immortality. Name is John Lumic. He created them."

"Are they gone?"

She nodded.

"I tried to imagine this place. I thought… dunno… some creepy cyber-civilization. Kingdom of machines."

"It says zeppelins in the booklet."

Ianto nervously chuckled.

"I'm horrified."

"It will pass."

Ianto gave a forced laugh and get up from the couch.

"I can't. I just can't. I promised Jack that I won't leave him."

"Never," she sort of echoed and Ianto knew that behind this one word was a story of its own. "Jack would want you to have a life."

"He thinks I'm dead. I'm memory for him now. He doesn't want me to do anything. Just a memory to share with new friends. I once new a Welsh boy and he made a great coffee. Bloody hell."

Rose Tyler nodded in understanding.

"But what a comeback."

"That's more of Jack thing."

"You know…. Time was I didn't think I could live here. I thought I lost the Doctor. He was there, I was here. And the thought that frighten me more than anything was that I was closed chapter."

"What happened?"

"Well… here I am. It's home. I got father here. And Doctor… well… he is kinda here too. Not all of him. It's complicated. It's good world, Ianto."

Ianto signed. The light of night London, the glittering pass of Thames and nearly starless city sky. It was safe here: no drag addict aliens, no past Jack's mistakes to screw them all. It was familiar. And Ianto wanted nothing more then get the hell out of this perfect world where Torchwood Tower still stood tall and proud, were aliens apologized after abduction and Earth got the Doctor to defend itself.

"With zeppelins."

"Bonus!"

Ianto considered that for a moment. Was she selling him an attempt in normal human life? After everything he was through? He wouldn't even know where to start.

He turned around to ask a question and saw that Rose Tyler was smiling. And he couldn't help, but smile back.

"I don't know where to start," he confessed.

"Well, Ianto, it so happens I got few ideas," she said and her voice was smug and self-assured. And just for a second she again reminded him of Jack. And Ianto felt a little bit like home.

"Sound adventurous."

"Oh, it is." Rose Tyler smiled even more wildly. "And note that I'm breaking every single protocol right now. But can't be helped. How does Torchwood sound, Ianto Jones?"

Ianto blinked.

_L__ate autumn field, ghostly town that had died out half and century ago silhouetted against the gloomy sky and first droplets of rain. Two people are sitting near the wreckage of the crashed helicopter._

"_Is that a job offer, lady Hartman?"_

"_Oh yes, Mister Jones."_

Déjà vu.

And of course he needed to be brain-dead to say no.

"In what capacity?" he asked perking up, willing to do anything.

"Oh, as it happens I got one fantastic vacant position…"

Unbeknown to them five floors down the Doctor, who was fiddling with dematerialisation circuit for his half-grown TRADIS, hiccupped.

_Next time: __Interlude 'Brave new world, or two months later'…_

A/N: and he did it again! At least now he doesn't have a cyber-girlfriend to hide. Sad, but no CJH yet. On the other hand his new boss boyfriend will sure make his life interesting. I got they adventures planned (including Daleks, cybermen, mummies), but if someone want to see smth particular… Who knows, you might give me great idea :). I'm not limiting myself to planned chapters. They are just backbone, you know, checkpoints for character development. So review, people, tell me what you think, what you would like to see, whatever.

NB! I created a forum here on ffnet for this story. I am posting here my… well… doubts. SO if you are not afraid of spoiler and willing to help… go there.


	6. Interlude: brave new world

A/N: I was aiming for stream of consciousness here, not too sure where I ended up so… If I forgot about anything important please feel free to remind me. :) Also I was contemplating DW tradition to cram half of a year worth of adventures into the very first week, but decided against that, as it would be counterproductive here.

Un-beted. Currently I'm in search of a beta willing to put up with my English or just a person to discuss my ideas with.

Interlude: **Brave new world, **_Or two months later_

In bright-light white room filled with mechanisms, computers and bits and bobs of the technology all across the local galaxy cluster a man in a sharp suit sat over classified reports. But with a cup of coffee long gone cold and the same page that was looking at him for the past half an hour his attention was wandering around with no clear aim.

His name was Ianto Jones and two months ago for all intent and purposes he didn't exist. No security number, no job, no friends, no man himself. He rather liked to speculate in a moment of self pity that it was visa versa and he didn't exist for the last two months. This wasn't completely accurate and with every passing day was becoming even less true. Position of PA to Doctor John Smith PhD., MD etc, etc was real enough. And so was the work that went with it. Of course Doctor since recently insisted that Ianto was a companion, but Ianto doubted that Torchwood Institute got such a position. But it was kind of flattering. Doctor's companion. Ianto was rather looking forward to rubbing it into Jack or Martha for that matter faces. And not a single Weevil. Ianto couldn't say that he missed that particular Cardiff peculiarity. "Say no to sewers!" was still needed to be worked on so. But then warm fuzzy feeling after helping to save the world once again compensated it quite nicely.

For all the talk they rarely did it – saved the world that is - back in Cardiff. Sleepers were real enough, and Abaddon (so that they brought on themselves), and Death (totally Jack's fault). Whole Indian adventure was… well… maybe not exactly Jack's fault, but reeked of Torchwood like tank with rotten herrings. And last but not the least the total fuck-up with 456, whether it was Jack's fault and whether the world was saved Ianto was still unsure. But statistic talked for itself. Of course there was that time that Earth was promptly stolen to be used for notorious use, but it wasn't Torchwood that saved the day in the end.

That was Doctor.

The Doctor about whom he now privately thought as his. No innuendo intended. The Doctor who showed him a new way to live.

Ianto never really expected to last long enough for the part of his life labeled _Torchwood Cardiff_ to disappear in the mist of the past. But it did without warning or contest or retcon.

New life, new Torchwood. Well maybe not that new. There were times when he had worked in exactly the same building and it had ended in fire and blood and betrayal. And even the man he was back then had disappeared by the end of overcast autumn day spent in scenic Welsh countryside. He became someone new since then, a man who didn't want to be hold back by his past. A man who got his life planned. A man with impossible wishes and loyalty pledged to the one who was kind enough to pick up pieces.

And now it looked like that man was disappearing too with no old ties present to remind him of who he was supposed to be. Ianto would welcome these changes it if only he didn't have that much baggage left from his previous life… But he did and that's what got him into situation on the first place.

All reduced to one word only spelled "Jack".

The were so many regrets linked to that name that at nights Ianto drowned in them and his head was spinning from all missed opportunities and unfulfilled promises.

It was all a game in the beginning. Con. Lies. Temporal solution. But then he managed to come from deception turned outright hate to loyalty bordering insanity in mere months.

He didn't remember being so broken since Lisa. Maybe not even then. And to think it was just a little bit more then three years ago. He was coping better that time so, maybe he learned to deal with it or maybe it was just so much one's world could crush down.

And probably if the would be no coming back, he could live with it.

But hope was real that time. Because despite years of unfounded jealousy and bitter aftertaste from Battle of Canary Warf, miraculously and impossibly, Ianto Jones now believed in the Doctor. Unconditionally to Ianto's immense surprise. He never trusted somebody like that, not even Jack.

It didn't happen overnight. First few weeks on parallel Earth he spent wondering how all these powerful, clever people could trust skinny clown with no sense of self-preservation and indecent amount of luck. It was hard working with the man knowing… suspecting the mess Doctor had left in his wake. And then strange feeling started to creep in. Not respect, not even acceptance or recognition. Fascination. A special kind of it that got a hold on Ianto and refused to let go. It was quickly joined by disbelief, because the man was more impossible then Jack Harkness. It all built up till one week ago the dam burst, and it wasn't just about the man. Only a week ago Ianto was still irreparably broken and yesterday he - it just happened between chips and bottle of local bear - he called this Earth home. All Doctor's fault.

It all started quite innocent really. Lost space tourist with crashed ship and no common sense.

"_Human!" spitted the Doctor._

"_Time Lord!" retorted back Ianto._

_Little squashy being with three eyes looked at them pleadingly. Bone white skin wrinkling in unmistakable distress._

"_Just save my ship, please!"_

_They looked at each other with guilt._

Of course alien just had to give them a ride. Of course she/he/it thought that London was on outskirt of Andromeda galaxy.

"_Bloody brilliant! Not just I'm stuck in parallel universe, I'm not even on Earth anymore!"_

"_Yes. Scenic route. But no worries! I once new young man Ian. Returned him home in the end. Probably. "_

"_Reassuring,… sir."_

After that the number of planets Ianto set foot on grew rapidly, none of them was anywhere near Earth of course.

"_I'm just a boy from Cardiff."_

_Doctor pointed at the unfamiliar sky glittering with myriads of impossibly bright stars above them._

"_And here you are… Wandering strange lands under foreign sky."_

"_Lost."_

"_Traveling."_

"_Whatever you say, sir."_

It turned out to be really nice. In a way. They, Ianto and the Doctor, even started to come to sort of understanding about live, universe and everything.

"_I'm not alien!"_

"_Oh! But you are."_

"…"

"_But really, you are alien."_

"_Sure."_

"_You are the first human to step on this planet!"_

"_How does it make me alien?"_

"_Torchwood," exasperate sighed the Doctor. "Look, should you be looking for a nearest spaceship to our backward little planet?"_

"_At this rate we should buy one. For later uses."_

Incidentally they run into some trouble. Helped some people. Muddled some interplanetary politics. Run from other people. Became victims of one particularly memorable case of cultural miscommunication.

"_You were a frog!"_

"_Not the worst thing that could happen. And really I wasn't a frog. No. Not exactly. It could be worse… I could become human."_

"_You are human. And it's worse than being a reptile how?"_

"_Oh… Well you know …"_

"_Then I take it, I shouldn't have kissed you so I could continue lo look for lift to Earth with one feet high foot frog."_

"_It was biological transfer! To high jump evolution pattern. We are rather similar… Time Lords and humans... to swing in the right way so to speak… Partly human me now. Well… maybe… but not were it counts!"_

"_Where is that?"_

"_Brains, you dumbo!"_

All that in surprisingly short time. So when it ended yesterday and there were on Earth once again Ianto was even a little bit sad.

"_What was it all about anyway?"_

"_Who knows," shrugged the Doctor. "Different planets, different species. All this wonderful quirks of creation. Kaleidoscope of cultures, traditions. Why you are so worried anyway, Ianto?"_

"_They didn't hitch us or something?" asked worriedly Ianto sniffing kind of flowers…._

_Doctor thought. And thought again._

"_Nay. No way. You are watching to much bad sci-fi!"_

"_Good. I'm going to call your fiancée. And then she can kill us both."_

"_In my defense, we were gone just a week!"_

If anything, Ianto mused, they little adventure turned out to be very effective teambuilding exercise.

But more importantly Ianto started to understand why Jack run after the Doctor. The man was enchanting in his own right. This in turn made him a little bit sad. Because if the other Doctor will recuperate Jack's feeling in Ianto's own lifetime, there would be nowhere to return to.

Of course Ianto wasn't sure there was anything to come back to as it is. The Hub was gone, who knows what happened to Gwen and Jack… heartbroken Jack that promised to remember him forever. Ianto allowed himself a wry smile. Apart from Jack that it. Only one man he could rely on still being around.

Or not.

Because would Jack even be anywhere around 21st century Earth when Ianto… he never thought about it like that, but "I came back to you, all of you," echoed from days long gone. Would he stay? Feeling a panic raising inside his chest, Ianto get up from his chair and took up few steps to the window.

Zeppelins in the sky.

That new world still made him breathless sometime. It was impossible hard-to-pinpoint-in-what-way-exactly better. And Ianto knew that he will really miss these slow giants. And Torchwood. And Rose Tyler. And the Doctor, if he was completely honest with himself, even if the man most of the time was pain in the ass.

He was wanted here, not needed, but wanted for just being himself, and not for his coffee or sex or because there was no one else to do his job. This Torchwood got thousands of employees only in Britain. And even if at first there were pity and empathy… Well no matter where Torchwood was located no one could make two months there on these two alone.

And despite all that Ianto wanted nothing more than see zeppelin-free sky and walk familiar Cardiff streets with weevils, thieves and lost aliens. And Captain Jack Harkness. And if first two Ianto could count on finding upon his return, the last one could turn out to be big bloody headache.

"Oh, Gwen, just do it for me," he whispered.

It was stupid and not like she could really hear him all across another universe, but in the end she was only person Jack could rely on when nightmare ended. If she was alive.

_Oh, God._

Which meant that he wasn't going to came back for most likely non-existent Torchwood, but for Jack. And that was scary. Because if … when he will return there would be no Torchwood to speak about (and Really Scotland so didn't count)… And most likely he will need to chase Jack all across time and space.

Ianto laughed.

Well he did tell "I love you." Now it looked like he will have to prove his own words. Nothing like planning a chase after your one true love all across time and space while being trapped in parallel universe.

He really needed that recommendation letter from Rose and Doctor. Just in case. And something to find his boss counterpart in a reasonable timeframe. Waiting was all good for Jack, but Ianto himself didn't have few spare decades.

Anyway planning was always his strong side.

Making a few quick notes in his PDA he felt himself calming again.

Must be love, he reasoned with himself. That felling bubbling inside his chest was a real love. The one he once thought he had found with Lisa, only to loose it death and duty and monster. He remembers how he practically cried "I love you" with what he thought were his last breath. Not even sure if that was it, but feeling it was a good time to say it, not like he was going to get another chance.

Wry smile crossed Ianto lips.

His last words. What a mess.

He will really need to apologize at some point in the future.

It was a good thing Jack thought he was dead. What a man would have done if he knew that Ianto was – basically - taken by the rift… Ianto shuddered.

Ianto didn't think that Jack will forget him, well... he would in time… but only if Doctor will overshoot by really long time and leave him in the 21 millennia or whatever. Few decades, maybe even centuries were safe bet. Because after what was more then a century Jack still felt something for John bloody Hart, and Ianto praised himself that he meant more than cocky blond bastard, luck of five years time loop notwithstanding.

Of course it also meant that on his return Ianto had a chance to find Jack that moved on, new team, maybe not even Torchwood, but some bloody Excalibur or worse so UNIT. And no place for himself in that new world orbiting around star called Jack.

Ianto wandered if he will be a new Ianto Jones by the time he would have a chance to find out. Because looking back at all those people who had picked him up in the past, Ianto in the hour of absolute honesty with himself didn't have any chance but to admit his own flexibility, to put it mildly… Yvonne, Jack, to lesser extent Gwen. And he always walked away, just with few scratches as a farewell gift where others lost sanity and life itself. And now Rose Tyler and the Doctor were having a go at it.

Third time is a charm they say, it certainly felt a miracle. And Ianto could only hope there won't be forth. Only it was another universe and nothing bloody counted for what it once had been.

Unreality of it was long paled and gone, leaving just a world behind with its own people, battles, heroes and Torchwood. It wasn't a very god substitution for what was left and lost with his Earth, but it helped.

So all in all Ianto didn't feel all that different from how he was in Torchwood Cardiff. Of course, they drunk insane amount of tea instead of coffee, and archives were organized by qualified stuff (which was a relief), and Doctor actually managed from time to time to dig out whatever gizmo they needed at the moment without any help from Ianto's side. Still other things were constant even in another Universe. Ianto did shopping, reminded his - temporal - boss that wardrobe wasn't actually a museum, saved said too adventurous boss twice week from most impossible thing and did paperwork afterwards. There was days when everybody lived, when they little team laughed and went for a drink in a bar and watched silly sci-fi films so different from real world, so unlike silly sci-fi movies Ianto remembered from his first Earth. There were other days when somebody wasn't saved and died, when Ianto looked himself in his flat and starred at a wall till sleep claimed him. The only major difference was lack of Jack.

And in the end it was a matter of taste.

And in the end only it outweighed everything else.

The door from Doctor's office banged. Ianto jerked his head up.

"Oi! Field trip, Jonsey-boy!" announced the Doctor running by and disappeared behind the doors leading to the hallway. Ianto glanced at his watch, and here it was, nine seconds later, Doctor picked back in and shortly ordered. "And bring nets, will you?"

Ianto glared at the Doctor's back.

On the seconds thought, nothing ever changed.

_Next time:_ **Change of perspective**. _Rose drags Ianto to a party with unexpected results. _

A/N: for Rose/Doctor shippers, no worries folks, there will be **no** I/D pairing. Just NO WAY. Nein. Non. I can't be persuaded. And that's not because I'm such a die hard janto fun. There will be usual Doctor-companion closer. But nothing further. It just there is very good reason (that I reveal in chapter #6) as for why there can't be I/D. As for the frog thing – it's common motive in Russian fairytales. Don't ask. And I kind of needed a kiss 'cause it's like tradition: Doctor kissed everybody. Not to mention that its Torchwood story.


End file.
